Udupi: Mattar Ratnakar Hegde, president of district unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said on Saturday that if sand removal or extraction did not begin in Udupi district by October 15, the BJP will decide its future course of protest on the issue on October 16.

Mr. Hegde told presspersons here that a lot of workers in the construction sector were affected as construction activity had come to a halt in the district. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had already directed the officers to allow sand extraction in the coastal district from October 15.

He said that the BJP’s candidate B.Y. Raghavendra would win the by-elections for the Shivamogga parliamentary seat. The Byndoor Assembly constituency in Udupi district was part of Shivamogga parliamentary seat. In 2014, former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa won this seat by a margin of 3.8 lakh and in Byndoor seat, the BJP had got a lead of 44,000 votes.

The BJP had wrested Byndoorconstituency from the Congress in the 2018 Assembly election by a margin of 25,000 votes. The BJP’s target was to get a lead of 50,000 votes in the Byndoor segment in the by-polls.

The BJP would hold a public meeting for the by-polls at Kollur near Byndoor on October 19. Both Mr. Yeddyurappa and Mr. Raghavendra would participate in it.

The BJP wanted elections to the posts of president and vice-president of urban local bodies of Udupi, Karkala, Kundapur and Saligrama to be held immediately and was awaiting the Election Commission’s decision as the model code of conduct was in force in Udupi district.